Virtual child pornography and utilitarianism

Abstract

The most common argument against child pornography is that children are harmed in the process of producing it. This is the argument from abusive production. However, it does not apply to ‘virtual’ child pornography, i.e. child pornography produced using computer technology without involving real children. Autilitarian who wishes to condemn virtual child pornography cannot appeal to the argument from abusive production. I discuss three possible ways out of this: (1) abandoning the intuition that virtual child pornography is wrong, (2) abandoning utilitarianism, or (3)circumventing the problem. I propose a version of the third way out.

Citation

Sandin, P. (2004), "Virtual child pornography and utilitarianism", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 217-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/14779960480000254